The Path of Thornshttp://www.homehalfway.net
Where's the Crown?Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:08:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1A Sick Kitty.http://www.homehalfway.net/2012/06/a-sick-kitty/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2012/06/a-sick-kitty/#commentsFri, 08 Jun 2012 17:08:50 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=91My friends’ cat is in a lot of pain and needs dental surgery. Please share this link to get the word out so money can be raised for proper care.

]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2012/06/a-sick-kitty/feed/0Hmm…http://www.homehalfway.net/2011/12/hmm/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2011/12/hmm/#commentsTue, 13 Dec 2011 04:55:57 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=88I want to use this site, but cannot decide how to go forward with it. Looking for advice. It’s been hard to focus here.
]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2011/12/hmm/feed/1The Game Has Changedhttp://www.homehalfway.net/2010/12/the-game-has-changed/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/12/the-game-has-changed/#commentsThu, 16 Dec 2010 21:35:29 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=86Many times in my life, I’ve been asked, or have indirectly heard, the question “What’s good music that really pumps you up? For when I want to work out or get going for the day?” Heard that question asked several times in several different ways. My usual answers? Pantera, Sevendust, Metallica, to a lesser degree 3 Doors Down and Paul Oakenfeld – and let’s not forget Tchaikovsky.

The suggestions in the answers to that question have a similar tone to me; intense, passionate, fierce, without needing to be angry or enraged, or any other similar negative feeling. Sure, a lot of pump-up music involves anger, but it’s not needed to get your blood going, at all.

Daft Punk proves this remarkably well in their soundtrack to the new movie Tron Legacy. What I like most about this soundtrack more than most is that the artist takes a creative turn while keeping the core of what they do intact. I’m used to Daft Punk as bizarre, mostly lighthearted, with beats that usually entice a house party or rave. They’re consistently fresh in their melodies, and they continue that powerful trek here.

The album is very dark, very intense, and very emotional. “Nocturne” is a brief song that sounds like a funeral scene, and tunes like “Overture”, “Armory” and “Recognizer” set the tone for the album as a whole; intensely passionate and gruesome, but with brilliant harmony. Daft Punk seems to take themselves more seriously than ever before, and you can hear it. And it’s brilliant.

The most traditional-sounding Daft Punk tracks are certainly “End of Line” and “Derezzed.” It has an old school sounding tempo, with sound bytes that you could swear were taken out of the video game Galaga, and brings you back to the time of the original Tron in that sense.

The execs for Tron either gave Daft Punk generally free creative reign, or they told them to write a strong set of songs that balance the Daft Punk we know with the Daft Punk that they want to create going forward. If you like tough, competitive-sounding symphonic instrumentals with a touch of that funky Daft Punk touch, then the soundtrack to Tron Legacy is right up your alley. It’s as inspiring as it is moody.

Good to have you back, boys.

]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/12/the-game-has-changed/feed/0Velvet drapes, glowing candles.http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/12/velvet-drapes-glowing-candles/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/12/velvet-drapes-glowing-candles/#commentsThu, 02 Dec 2010 23:06:23 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=82Another favorite band of mine – top 5 all-time, I’d say – is an Italian band who recently found fame out west. They call themselves Lacuna Coil, and last year they came out with an album entitled Shallow Life.

I couldn’t wait to hear it. When I did, I found myself disappointed. Their debut album, In a Reverie, was brilliant, though a bit unfinished; I feel the same way about this new record once again.

They had continually grown – through the excellent melodies and strong songwriting and harmony in Unleashed Memories, which also happens to include my favorite song of theirs, the Italian-worded “Senzafine.” That song has a chorus intense enough to wake anyone up from any somber state and make them feel like they can take on anything. It was heavy, it was soft, it was developed and a large growth from In a Reverie.

They really hit the center of the target with the perfect (in my opinion) record Comalies. Familiar songs in the hard rock community like “Heaven’s a Lie”, “Swamped” and “Self Deception” blew me away when I first heard them at a club in Chicago when they were opening up for the late Peter Steele’s goth-metal band Type O’ Negative. The songs are a perfect craft, a well-blended mix of catchy melody with the same bone-crushing guitar work and epic-sounding vocals that make them as excellent as they are. With Comalies, they stayed true to their core while perfecting their sound on an album of songs that could only go together, like a fine-woven quilt. I figured this would take them to the top of the charts to come – unfortunately America still hasn’t noticed them enough yet – but I digress.

They began to sound a bit more commercial in Karmacode, which excellently put out their biggest song yet, “Our Truth”, and a powerful cover of Depeche Mode’s most well-known song, “Enjoy the Silence”, a song with a title you could never forget.

Sorry, wanted to catch you up on Lacuna Coil a bit before I begin my slightly disappointing post of Shallow Life. If you like Evanescence, you’d like Lacuna a hell of a lot more. I can’t get enough of this band.

Shallow Life, to me, reflected a problem a lot of bands go through. They work hard, hone their skills, perfect their songwriting and direction, get fairly well-known, and end up selling themselves short trying to gain approval from a mass audience. Don’t get me wrong, I love the album because like very few other bands I love, Lacuna Coil can do no wrong to my ears. But I think they limited themselves too much with this one.

They continued the trend of having an album-busting song entitled “Spellbound”, which had the same strong effect on Shallow Life that “Our Truth” had on Karmacode. Makes sense – if you want your album to be heard, open it up with a catchy, strong first single. However, Shallow Life mostly goes a bit downhill from there. The songs are shorter, and they hurry themselves up the same way a great storyteller rushes a story when they’re not in the mood to tell one.

“I Won’t Tell You”, “Not Enough”, and “The Maze” are nicely crafted tunes with riveting choruses I spend a lot of time listening to, but the rest of the album falls forgotten on my ears despite hearing them hundreds of times. I don’t believe they ‘sold out’ because I rarely believe in such a meaning in the first place, but Lacuna Coil could have let these songs grow, develop and widen like they have so well in the past. You hear a song, you like it, you want to experience more, and then the whole thing’s over when you feel it just began.

It’s a common flaw when trying to find a commercial sound when you should only spend time making an album for yourself. And maybe Lacuna Coil did, maybe Shallow Life was written with the same frame of mind that they always have in the studio. Beats me, I don’t know them personally, unfortunately. However, it seems like they went into it with the thought that it would be a short-sweet, catchy album. And it is; but Lacuna can do even better. They can give their songs that heavy, epic, wandering sound that makes them one of the best hard rock bands on earth.

I hope they find their perfect sound again, without getting bored of what they’ve done so far. I never want a band to sell themselves short, no matter what they want to do, but I worry one of my favorite bands did that with Shallow Life and I don’t want a band with their talent, passion and intelligence strangle their own sound like that going further.

They’re at the highest level of performance and songwriting, in my book. I want them to write like they know that!

]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/12/velvet-drapes-glowing-candles/feed/0Chase that pain on your brow…http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/10/chase-that-pain-on-your-brow/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/10/chase-that-pain-on-your-brow/#commentsFri, 22 Oct 2010 16:24:49 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=80I mentioned recently that one of my favorite all-time singers, Anggun, was on the unbelievably brilliant album Atemlos by Schiller. Her work is as remarkable as his, in terms of talent, uniqueness, and a passion in their music that is so rarely seen in this day and age where we seem to be manufacturing music without any real feeling.

Anggun first caught my ear in 1998, when her first English international album Snow on the Sahara was released, and it was played once and only once on a local radio station here. She’s Indonesian with a French background, and not yet known in America. Google wasn’t a superpower back then, nor was Yahoo, so I really had to hunt the song down. I found it on this magnificent album, a record that truly stands on its own apart from any other female vocalist I’ve ever heard.

Snow on the Sahara is relaxing, intelligent, heartfelt, and it really takes you away to a place of tranquility in your head. I used to listen to it all the time when I’d study, or go to sleep, or just about any other time in my life where I wanted/needed to be at ease. It doesn’t have the empty cheesiness that Enya commonly falls into – it’s deep, it’s soulful, it’s as pure in sound as any.

Songs like “By The Moon”, “A Rose in the Wind” and “On the Breath of an Angel” make you feel like you’re sailing away somewhere far from any of your troubles. I know that sounds corny, but it’s absolutely true. They’re melodic, simple and a perfect lucidity.

Not all songs have the ability to put you to sleep – “Over Their Walls”, “Dream of Me” and “Valparaiso” have more of an island sound in my opinion, and are nothing short of bright and vibrant in their harmonies and chord progressions. She comes to life in everything she puts a tune to, and these songs have an epic feel that makes you only want to hear more.

She immediately seemed well versed to me when she even did a cover of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars”, an odd choice I thought, but it worked perfectly with her own touch. Her voice just blows through the song, and though it does vary considerably from the rest of the album, it’s one of the better covers I know, and certainly one of the most original.

Altogether, Snow on the Sahara has become one of my favorite all-time albums, and her work since has developed and advanced, continually keeping herself fresh and reinvented with each record. Anggun Cipti Sasma is one of the world’s best female solo artists, and I hope she finds great success on our shores someday.

]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/10/chase-that-pain-on-your-brow/feed/0Sweden’s best music will never be from ABBA.http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/10/swedens-best-music-will-never-be-from-abba/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/10/swedens-best-music-will-never-be-from-abba/#commentsFri, 01 Oct 2010 17:38:17 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=76One of my favorite all-time bands, one of the best metal bands ever created, and one of the most promising groups of musicians I’ve ever heard, lived briefly in the mid-to-late nineties. Their guitars were heavy and ugly enough to silence any other in their genre. Their rhythms were as nasty as they were catchy. The music they spanned in a few short years could have changed the scene forever. They put on an incredible aggressive show, and captivated anyone that saw them.

That band was Drain STH; a band formed by four Swedish women that would lead you to believe they were Motorhead gone mad. They made melodies ugly and phenomenal at the same time; something I haven’t heard before, or since. Eleven years since their breakup, and I still miss their bone-crushing symphonies.

Horror Wresting ought to be defined as a metal necessity for any fan of the genre. From the jaw-dropping heaviness of “I Don’t Mind” to the anthem that is “Serve The Shame”, to their hellfire cover of “Ace of Spades” that literally makes you feel like the apocalypse is about to incur its wrath all around you. And, in case you haven’t had enough of a powerful record thrown at you, they write the brilliant “Crack The Liar’s Smile” that sounds like something Nancy Wilson could have written.

But beyond that – their harmony, their excellent timing and their remarkable dark songwriting skills makes them as unique of a band as any I’ve ever experienced. They were ahead of their time, and still are. Every track had the same moodiness, but with different elements each time. And having such a feminine looking band writing something so disgustingly fantastic made them even more interesting.

Their lead singer, Maria Sjoholm, married Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and that was the end of that. The other members play here and there, but they’ve never been able to find their niche since. It’s such a shame, because in less than five years of playing music together, I easily mark them as one of the most unheralded, intelligent and mesmerizing metal bands in history.

]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/10/swedens-best-music-will-never-be-from-abba/feed/0Save love from anger.http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/09/save-love-from-anger/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/09/save-love-from-anger/#commentsThu, 16 Sep 2010 18:20:56 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=73My album of the year 2010 is, without a doubt, ‘Atemlos’ from Schiller. The album is as relaxing as it is surreal, and as surreal as it is powerful and moving. The album defies anyone who say you cannot put a true musician’s emotion in electronic music. The melodies, the harmonies, the fusion of Christopher von Deylen’s performance with the many singers he brings in to sing over it is nothing short of perfect.

“Sunrise”, featuring Lenka, is a symphony in itself. Her voice is as soft as the melody, but the music is as gripping as Grisham at his best. It’s tranquil and an ambiance all in itself. Deylen made the song feel like something some used to find miraculous – a sunrise, for example.

He also features one of my all-time favorite singers – Anggun – on two songs of this album. “Blind” has the same relaxing intensity (Deylen makes that paradox come true) that flows through several of the album’s tracks, while “Always You” is one of the more soft and inventive romantic songs I’ve ever heard. Her voice with Deylen’s music is brilliant fusion not seen very often between two artists so defined separately.

Deylen’s exceptional ear for vocals on his own music does have a flow that matches in perfect syncopation with his music. A male singer I wasn’t familiar with, named Henree, sings on a track called “I Will Follow You”, and though his voice is masculine, it’s as gentle and as perfectly placed as the rest of the female singers on the album. Needless to say, this is Deylen’s largest vocal experimentation in terms of quantity of singers, and none of it was any less than perfectly pieced together and mastered.

If Schiller were to spend much of any time in the US promoting his work, he’d no doubt be a superstar. There’s no one that writes music with the electronic, yet pure, serenity that he does – and that sort of work is a huge gap in America. That purity lacks here, the puzzles Deylen pieces together in such an epic manner lacks here as well. If I were to sit with him in the studio listening to him work, I believe I’d find myself dumbfounded day after day.

Atemlos does what many artists can’t do very often anymore, and that is show the brilliant work of a musician so many years after first paving their way on their respective scene. It’s flawless, it’s gorgeous, it’s full of emotion and relaxation at the same time, and it’s something you can listen to in nearly any mood, or in any time of your life.

As someone that wants a lot of honesty, purity and passion in the music he listens to, I got all of that and more with this album. Simply perfect. Well done, Deylen.

]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/09/save-love-from-anger/feed/0Before you judge me, try hard to love me…http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/06/before-you-judge-me-try-hard-to-love-me/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/06/before-you-judge-me-try-hard-to-love-me/#commentsWed, 30 Jun 2010 00:09:56 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=70It’s never fair when you’re given the world, and are expected to live up to it.

A year ago now, we lost a King, a leader, a sensation and most importantly, a seemingly wonderful human being. I can’t imagine being the center of the world’s attention, and then on top of it going through such trouble, despair and confusion. While still being all of that, for earth to see. We all like to jump to conclusions, judge as soon as possible, and with that judgment tear people down like moldy old wallpaper. The second something isn’t what we imagine it to be, when it’s something we can’t understand without tearing down our own walls of perfect image, we condemn and destroy it.

I may be wrong. This man may have been a sexual deviant, a double-crosser and a disgrace to generations worldwide. We’ll never really, truly know if he was. What we do truly know is that he showed the world nothing but love, dedication and endless talent that we ate up and later chewed out when it tasted a little funky. I myself have dealt with emotional issues, heartache and awful depression. Letting the world see not only that, but how I’d deal with that, is a trauma none of us could ever begin to imagine. He dealt with his issues with physical changes, interactions none of us gave any time to listen to or understand (including myself, absolutely), and decisions that were questionable at best.

I was having a panic attack once. I was in financial distress, dealing with more uncertainty than I’ve ever experienced, and dealing with losses I never thought I’d have to. If the world saw my reactions to that, and knew nearly every last detail of it, I might have changed myself and made bizarre relations as well. I nearly lost my world; and when you want that world back, and you don’t know how to, you don’t always know your own reason. All you know is, you lost something and you want it back. But you don’t want to be hurtful to anyone, and you don’t want to make a fool of yourself either. Well, to err is human, and there’s no margin of error when the scale is that large.

This man gave us every last drop of all he had to give. His talent, his creativity, his ecologic intelligence and passion, and even a good deal of his sanity. Yes, as we’ve all violently pointed out, he had his mistakes and character decisions that made him far, far from perfect. But are you? Am I?

He pleaded with us, with so many of his songs and lyrics within them. He tried to get us to listen. And of course we didn’t, myself included; he practically lived in obscurity and financial demise for years before he gave his final breath. The same market of journalists, TV hosts and press that glorified his imperfect mistakes and actions all of a sudden felt compassion and loss, and gave their best words. In the world’s best example of not knowing what you have until it’s gone, we lost the Polaris of the entertainment world. Had we heard him out a little better when he begged us to, maybe he wouldn’t have led such a life of inner misery and with such a lack of self-understanding.

He had everything there was to have, absolutely everything – and I can’t imagine he realized much of any of it. He paid dearly for trying to go back in time within his own life, with his home, with choices he made, and he knew it. Still, he died wondering if the world ever even gave a damn about him beyond what he gave and gave until he literally no longer could.

…I take that back. I saw his final documentary that hit theaters last year, and he had all the heart and talent he ever did, and it made it that much sadder to know that never got a chance to develop again. While he should have known better in some way, he paid the price of being cast off too soon.

Do we owe his spirit an apology? Who knows. Should he have shown remorse for his own trouble? Yes, and he did plenty of times. It’s an altogether tragic, sad and confusing loss of one of the best entertainers and activists we’ll ever witness. And if you scoffed at that last statement, I certainly can’t blame you, but I can’t help but understand and even relate a little to someone as in need of help as they were profitable in their deserved success.

He said it best in his own words, which is cryptic and even more melancholy to listen to now:

Like A Comet
Blazing ‘Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

When his sunlight began to dim, we shut our blinds well too soon. I absolutely hope the anguish you felt in this lifetime is long gone wherever you are now. Rest in peace and quiet, Michael Jackson.

]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/06/before-you-judge-me-try-hard-to-love-me/feed/0Show your scars.http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/03/show-your-scars/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/03/show-your-scars/#commentsWed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:39 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=65This is a post I’ve been avoiding a bit, just because I wanted to spread myself apart from music everyone who’s ever known me knew I loved. I don’t want to come off across bias. But then again, I know I’m not bias, you’ll learn I’m not bias, and I shall write about the feelings and emotions of any album I damn well please.

Death Magnetic. In the eyes of most, an album that landmarks Metallica’s return to their heavy metal roots. In the eyes of some, their best album in 25 years. In the eyes of others, another disappointment after decades of other disappointments. Metallica’s been in a position no other heavy metal band has ever been in; they’ve tested the depths of their limitations time and time again, ever since their beginning. They always refused to make a duplicate sound, and when that ventured away from thrash metal, people called the band ‘sellouts.’ Which is ridiculous, ignorant and absolute nonsense, considering everything they do is for themselves, and taking risks in their careers that may potentially alienate everyone that’s ever heard them, like in Load and ReLoad, is an idea that is the polar opposite of selling out. Metal fans have more of a fear of change than any genre ever created, and their strict and thorough guidelines as to what constitutes metal makes them about as unforgiving as the people that beat them up early in their lives and made them this angry in the first place.

But I digress. If there is an album to call Metallica ‘sellouts’ on, it’s Death Magnetic. It’s the first time any of us have ever seen them go backwards in any sort of sense; so backwards, in fact, that producer Rick Rubin forced them to listen to their masterpiece of 1986, Master of Puppets, over and over again until they returned to their 23 year old frames of mind. If that isn’t proof that Rick believed this was Metallica’s last stand in their career, nothing is. It was a hail Mary; a last chance; otherwise many would see Metallica as a band whose glory days ended twenty years ago. Of course, other fans like myself enjoyed any sound Metallica made and felt grateful for it.

What made this album amazing, near-perfect and true is the fact that while yes, they did go back and revisit, it was a reminder to the band as to another aspect of what they were all about; “Metal Up Your Ass.” They ventured, from country ballads to irish folk songs to symphonies and everything in between, and returned home with their decades of knowledge and experience to make this album. It can be considered a Greatest Hits, because it’s everything in one; I hear the punk presence that they first introduced from Kill ‘em All, I hear the thrash of Ride the Lightning and their inspiration Master of Puppets, and the commercial/mainstream monster licks similar to Metallica, or ‘The Black Album’ in there as well. But it doesn’t end there; the “ballads” of the album, The Day That Never Comes and The Unforgiven III have a strong resemblance to melodies and harmonies of the Load era. All that’s missing is the ugliness of St. Anger, which was little more than an ugly time in their lives that had to be created, let out, and left there.

The opening song, That Was Just Your Life, has the dark openings similar to previous other first tracks like Battery and Blackened. It’s brutal, ugly, angry and violent, and damn near knocks you out of your chair if you’re expecting anything less. Broken, Beat and Scarred is a clear narration of the personal and professional troubles James and the boys have gone through, and while it too sounds like an angry release similar to St. Anger, the song structure, solos and non-trash can drumming makes the fury of the song much more enjoyable. All Nightmare Long is my personal pick for ugliest track; it literally sounds like a nightmare, and has one of the most incredible solos guitarist Kirk Hammett has written in years. The album even has its first true instrumental since 1986’s Orion, entitled Suicide & Redemption, which consists of one of the heaviest, moodiest jams I’ve ever heard. The closing song, My Apocalypse, might be the most brutal of them all; to me, it sounds like something Slayer or early Megadeth would write.

The album has all the fury every Metallica fan has ever needed; it has a lot of comparisons to their early work, of course, but at the same time it sounds nothing like it; it’s got the experience, the battle-worn trials and tribulations of their lives and careers, and the messages created in the aftermath. It’s Metallica coming home after a long, hard, havoc-wrecked battle, and creating some of their best work yet. They’re nearly 5o now, with wives and children, but no matter how much they experimented and traveled, they’re the same Metallica we know and love, and Death Magnetic has the feelings and sounds to make it an instant vintage classic. Well done.

]]>http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/03/show-your-scars/feed/5Get your bodyguard to pick up your trash.http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/03/get-your-bodyguard-to-pick-up-your-trash/
http://www.homehalfway.net/2010/03/get-your-bodyguard-to-pick-up-your-trash/#commentsThu, 18 Mar 2010 21:32:19 +0000http://www.homehalfway.net/?p=63It took me awhile to figure out if I liked Pain. I think the band name’s pretty cheesy and unoriginal, like Death. They’re also industrial, and at first they didn’t stand out as much to me as i:scintilla does. Then I really listened and really studied their newest album, Cynic Paradise. The album is a great comedic summary of how the band seriously feels. And that’s where I got intrigued.

The more I studied this album, the more I got attached to it, and I ended up absolutely loving it. They tackle the lack of glamor and honesty in my favorite track, “Clouds of Ecstasy”, where they really tackle the nonsense that goes on in Hollywood’s artificial atmosphere. “Monkey Business” tackles similar fakes and liars, calling them out while delivering unbelievable industrial anthems that just blow you away. The band thoroughly, completely and entirely calls out people they can’t respect or dignify, and they do it bluntly, but with enough tact to really understand what they’re talking about.

“Reach Out (And Regret)” and the incredibly fierce & catchy “Follow Me” with Anette Olzon of Nightwish continue the eager, aggressive industrial/metal force with feeling most new music doesn’t have. When I think of ‘damn the Man’ bands, historically I think of the hippie generation mostly. Having such strong messages about corruption, scandals and falsehoods from a band in such a genre is by far the most original and most interesting aspect of Pain. These are intelligent guys, with a lot to say, and I know this will sound comical but they have the strongest opinion out of anyone I’ve ever heard from Sweden, of all places!

Pain is a outspoken, brilliantly talented industrial metal band with some of the catchiest tunes I’ve heard in quite awhile. They’re a band to blare loud and proud, with lyrics that stick. I’m a fan, a big big fan, and I recommend it to anyone who likes to rock out. With meaning.